Author Topic: Space exploration thread - Unexpected Rapid Disassembly in the launch area.  (Read 310652 times)

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Re: Space exploration thread
« Reply #1960 on: February 10, 2018, 12:18:01 am »
Let's not forget New Horizons.

Not only is the spacecraft continue to send imagery from beyond the distance Voyager 1 took the famous "pale blue dot" image, it's also providing invaluable phase angle images of objects in the outer solar system, such as KBOs, dwarf planets and Centaurs.  This is information you simply can't get from Earth's vantage point, and New Horizon's has to be at least two generations ahead of the technology aboard the Voyager spacecraft.

http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/News-Center/News-Article.php?page=20180208
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Re: Space exploration thread
« Reply #1961 on: February 10, 2018, 09:46:09 am »
Let's not forget New Horizons.

Not only is the spacecraft continue to send imagery from beyond the distance Voyager 1 took the famous "pale blue dot" image, it's also providing invaluable phase angle images of objects in the outer solar system, such as KBOs, dwarf planets and Centaurs.  This is information you simply can't get from Earth's vantage point, and New Horizon's has to be at least two generations ahead of the technology aboard the Voyager spacecraft.

http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/News-Center/News-Article.php?page=20180208

That got out there quick didn't it?

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Re: Space exploration thread
« Reply #1962 on: February 10, 2018, 09:54:38 am »
Going to be the ultimate irony when the Human Race gets wiped out because of a car that was designed to help save a livable Earth.
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Re: Space exploration thread
« Reply #1963 on: February 10, 2018, 09:57:30 am »
Going to be the ultimate irony when the Human Race gets wiped out because of a car that was designed to help save a livable Earth.

Eh?
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Offline WhereAngelsPlay

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Re: Space exploration thread
« Reply #1964 on: February 10, 2018, 10:00:30 am »
Eh?

When Elons Car plays billiards in the Asteroid belt.
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Offline TepidT2O

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Re: Space exploration thread
« Reply #1965 on: February 10, 2018, 10:04:52 am »
Eh?
A reference to Star Trek the movie I suspect...
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Re: Space exploration thread
« Reply #1966 on: February 10, 2018, 10:58:48 am »
When Elons Car plays billiards in the Asteroid belt.

:D

"There are many horrible things that can happen to young planets, such as getting destroyed to make way for a hyperspace bypass.

There was one inhabited planet in the seventh dimension that got used as a ball in a game of intergalactic bar billiards. It got potted straight into a black hole, killing ten billion people.

It only scored thirty points."
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They both went in high, that's factually correct, both tried to play the ball at height.  Doku with his foot, Mac Allister with his chest.

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Re: Space exploration thread
« Reply #1967 on: February 10, 2018, 10:59:25 am »
A reference to Star Trek the movie I suspect...

I reckon it's a reference to the Bar Billiards comment (Above) :)  From Hitchhikers Guide
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Offline gazzalfc

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Re: Space exploration thread
« Reply #1968 on: February 22, 2018, 02:18:11 pm »
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-p-PToD2URA

Falcon 9 currently taking the PAZ satellite to low-Earth orbit

There is no plans to recover the main rocket for this launch
« Last Edit: February 22, 2018, 02:22:35 pm by gazzalfc »

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Re: Space exploration thread
« Reply #1969 on: March 10, 2018, 08:39:22 pm »
Wondered about this off an on for a couple of years.  In about 5.5bn years time the Sun will start shedding it's mass through a series of red giant phases.  Is it possible Jupiter could scoop up enough of this mass to become a star itself, or would it simply be too tenuous and spread out for that to happen?  Or would it be deflected around the planet's magnetic field as per the solar wind?
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Offline Buggy Eyes Alfredo

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Re: Space exploration thread
« Reply #1970 on: March 12, 2018, 04:31:31 am »

Small points not mentioned

In the cars glovebox is a towel and a copy of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

On the dashboard is a Hotwheels roadster with a mini spaceman figure in the car

Between that and Bowie playing on a loop this just became even more epic and brilliant.

    :thumbup

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Offline tedmus

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Re: Space exploration thread
« Reply #1971 on: March 15, 2018, 03:14:37 pm »
Falcon Heavy central core missing the landing boat and hitting the sea.

https://gfycat.com/NewThornyCockerspaniel

Taken from here, about 1:11 in

https://youtu.be/A0FZIwabctw


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Re: Space exploration thread
« Reply #1972 on: March 18, 2018, 09:45:15 am »
Wondered about this off an on for a couple of years.  In about 5.5bn years time the Sun will start shedding it's mass through a series of red giant phases.  Is it possible Jupiter could scoop up enough of this mass to become a star itself, or would it simply be too tenuous and spread out for that to happen?  Or would it be deflected around the planet's magnetic field as per the solar wind?
It'd have to gain about 80 times its own mass, so the odds are absolutely miniscule.  The Sun will lose mass so the orbits of the planets will drift out somewhat anyway.
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Re: Space exploration thread
« Reply #1973 on: March 18, 2018, 07:01:47 pm »
It'd have to gain about 80 times its own mass, so the odds are absolutely miniscule.  The Sun will lose mass so the orbits of the planets will drift out somewhat anyway.

Yeah.  Did some reading up on it.  Jupiter's mass is only about 1000th of the Sun's; it would need only about 13 Jupiter masses to become a small brown dwarf, but 75 Jupiter masses to become a large brown dwarf (or small red dwarf).

That said, the sun will lose at least half it's current mass over the next 5 billion years or so.  That's 500 Jupiter masses worth of material, and Jupiter is in the right place to collect some of it, being the closest gas giant.  That said, the increased solar wind of the sun's red giant phase might actually end up eroding part of Jupiter's atmosphere.  Still, I suppose it's theoretically possible.
« Last Edit: March 18, 2018, 07:04:21 pm by Red Berry »
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Offline CornerFlag

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Re: Space exploration thread
« Reply #1974 on: March 18, 2018, 09:57:56 pm »
Yeah.  Did some reading up on it.  Jupiter's mass is only about 1000th of the Sun's; it would need only about 13 Jupiter masses to become a small brown dwarf, but 75 Jupiter masses to become a large brown dwarf (or small red dwarf).

That said, the sun will lose at least half it's current mass over the next 5 billion years or so.  That's 500 Jupiter masses worth of material, and Jupiter is in the right place to collect some of it, being the closest gas giant.  That said, the increased solar wind of the sun's red giant phase might actually end up eroding part of Jupiter's atmosphere.  Still, I suppose it's theoretically possible.
Theoretically, yeah, but you think about the scale of everything, all of that material isn't going to come off the Sun, it's going to be partially the material swept away when carbon can't fuse and the hot core at the centre for its white dwarf phase.

The actual scale of the whole thing (the Sun has a radius of about 700,000km while Jupiter is at 770,000,000km away with a radius of 70,000km) just makes it impossible.  All the matter will be scattered in a (roughly) spherical shape, so as well as pushing Jupiter out further, only a tiny concentration of the matter will ever get caught up in its orbit, never mind the gravity well itself.

Sorry to be a negative numpty!
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Offline farawayred

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Re: Space exploration thread
« Reply #1975 on: March 18, 2018, 10:52:48 pm »
It's an interesting thought of what would become of Jupiter. The sun would have spent its fuel, so Jupiter won't ignite, but the potential to grow in mass is enormous. It's not just a simple escape of material from the sun because of the coupling of the magnetic fields. What protects Earth from the solar plasma may feed Jupiter:


Currently, the solar corona mass ejection events are deflected from a planetary magnetic field. But when the fuel runs out and the sun expands in size, the ion energy would be very low. If Jupiter still has a strong magnetic field, it can capture that material through the aurora regions.
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Re: Space exploration thread
« Reply #1976 on: March 23, 2018, 04:54:44 pm »

Sorry to be a negative numpty!

Not at all!  It's an interesting discussion and like I said, I've always been curious about it. :)

Reading up on the potential future evolution of the solar system is fascinating.  The sun is speculated to go through two giant phases after the 5bn year mark: expand, then shrink slightly and then expand again, ultimately puffing off its outer layers.  It's gravity will weaken over this period as it sheds mass, allowing the orbits of the gas giants to drift outwards. 

Studying planetary nebulas shows a lot of material in the form of a giant ring.  Depending on the strength of the solar wind you'd expect all the giant planets to hoover up at least some of that material, but for Jupiter it probably wouldn't be more than 5 masses.  Still there'll be a lot of free hydrogen released.

And thanks for details, faraway :)
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Re: Space exploration thread
« Reply #1977 on: March 24, 2018, 03:50:32 pm »
Yeah, it's always fascinating to me (hence the astro BSc ;) ) so when I have the time during this PGDE stuff I read up as much as I can.  Made some brilliant friends on that course including someone who's currently on La Palma doing her doctoral work.  Lucky so-and-so!  Even just reading the wikipedia page of the far future timeline (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_the_far_future) leads down so many rabbit holes.
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Re: Space exploration thread
« Reply #1978 on: March 25, 2018, 01:08:48 pm »
I've read that wiki page more than once.  Another fave of mine is the extra terrestrial skies.  :D

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extraterrestrial_skies
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Re: Space exploration thread
« Reply #1979 on: April 30, 2018, 01:45:39 am »
After two years delay, the NASA InSight mission to Mars is scheduled to launch at 4:05am PST on May 5 from Vandenberg AFB, California. I dount that it will be a pretty view from a place known for its marine layers, especially at 4am, but the cameras above the clouds should be good. Watch it if you can, that's 5 min past noon British time. I'll be with my family and so didn't want to go to the launch room (they can't), but we'll be going to the launch site. :)

Wish us good luck! First interplanetary launch from California.
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Offline kopite321

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Re: Space exploration thread
« Reply #1980 on: April 30, 2018, 07:38:22 am »
God Speed Faraway Red!  ;) ;)
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Re: Space exploration thread
« Reply #1981 on: April 30, 2018, 03:54:14 pm »
A stella merger may be on the cards for 2022, although its magnitude +2 wont be very impressive.

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Offline TepidT2O

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Re: Space exploration thread
« Reply #1982 on: May 24, 2018, 07:31:48 pm »
So you got that drill working again?

About bloody time ;D
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Offline The Gulleysucker

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Re: Space exploration thread
« Reply #1983 on: June 3, 2018, 11:24:11 pm »
Wonderful view of the ISS 30 minutes ago lazily meandering across the heavens for 4 minutes on this simply beautiful, cloudless and balmy night down here in Devon.
Spotted a couple other satellites crisscrossing the sky while waiting.
I never cease to be in awe of the science of it all or the beauty of the sky on evenings like this.
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Offline farawayred

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Re: Space exploration thread
« Reply #1984 on: June 4, 2018, 01:07:57 am »
So you got that drill working again?

About bloody time ;D
The percussion drill has a loose bushing, but that's not a problem for it. Rattling inside the case the wire insulation was compromised, which creates intermittent shorts. The risk was against the rover, not just the drill.
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Re: Space exploration thread
« Reply #1985 on: June 4, 2018, 08:09:27 pm »
Watching the Gaia data visualised on the Sky at Night episode last month just took my breath away.  With the course I'm doing, really missed the astro stuff I've neglected these past 9 months.
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Re: Space exploration thread
« Reply #1986 on: June 8, 2018, 03:50:36 am »
NASA Finds Ancient Organic Material, Mysterious Methane on Mars
https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=7154
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Offline TepidT2O

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Re: Space exploration thread
« Reply #1987 on: June 8, 2018, 07:22:39 am »
Life elsewhere in the universe eh?


This may be pretty good evidence of it..
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Re: Space exploration thread
« Reply #1988 on: June 8, 2018, 05:53:48 pm »
Tanya Harrison has done a good break down to counteract some of the more misleading headlines: https://medium.com/@tanyaofmars/the-curious-case-of-methane-on-mars-a06526b30d87

Absolutely amazing whatever it proves to be.
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Re: Space exploration thread
« Reply #1989 on: June 11, 2018, 12:16:57 am »
Tanya Harrison has done a good break down to counteract some of the more misleading headlines: https://medium.com/@tanyaofmars/the-curious-case-of-methane-on-mars-a06526b30d87

Absolutely amazing whatever it proves to be.

That's a good article.  Flipping through wikipedia seems to suggest a couple of other possibilites for methane origin as well:

Quote
The principal candidates for the origin of Mars' methane include non-biological processes such as water–rock reactions, radiolysis of water, and pyrite formation, all of which produce H2 that could then generate methane and other hydrocarbons via Fischer–Tropsch synthesis with CO and CO2.[66] It has also been shown that methane could be produced by a process involving water, carbon dioxide, and the mineral olivine, which is known to be common on Mars.[67] The required conditions for this reaction (i.e. high temperature and pressure) do not exist on the surface, but may exist within the crust.[68][69] A detection of the mineral by-product serpentinite would suggest that this process is occurring. An analog on Earth suggests that low-temperature production and exhalation of methane from serpentinized rocks may be possible on Mars.[70] Another possible geophysical source could be ancient methane trapped in clathrate hydrates that may be released occasionally.[71] Under the assumption of a cold early Mars environment, a cryosphere could trap such methane as clathrates in stable form at depth, that might exhibit sporadic release.[72]

A group of Mexican scientists performed plasma experiments in a synthetic Mars atmosphere and found that bursts of methane can be produced when a discharge interacts with water ice. A potential source of the discharges can be the electrification of dust particles from sand storms and dust devils. The ice can be found in trenches or in the permafrost. The electrical discharge ionizes gaseous CO2 and water molecules and their byproducts recombine to produce methane. The results obtained show that pulsed electrical discharges over ice samples in a Martian atmosphere produce about 1.41×1016 molecules of methane per joule of applied energy.[73][74]

With the clathrate concept it doesn't give a mechanism for release; some form of geological activity would seem most likely but the emissions seem to be seasonal so this seems unlikely. 

The latter study seems to suggest methane release is possible without the need for liquid water but is there any device at Mars able to detect the electrical discharges required for it to happen?
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Offline farawayred

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Re: Space exploration thread
« Reply #1990 on: June 14, 2018, 06:23:39 am »
Wish Opportunity good luck! Fourteen years and counting... And I'm still counting. MER (Spirit and Opportunity) was so much better mission than MSL (Curiosity), which is better yet than Mars 2020 (just IMHO).

http://www.dw.com/en/massive-dust-storm-threatens-mars-rover-opportunity/a-44213514

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Re: Space exploration thread
« Reply #1991 on: July 23, 2018, 11:40:34 pm »
It never ceases to amaze me.

Just watched a wonderful 6 minute transit over the sky here in Devon, west to east, of the ISS and as a bonus, about three minutes after and on its trail what I assume was Cygnus.

A few other sat's also visible moving in the heavens, south to north, at a guess likely gps ones meandering around.

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Re: Space exploration thread
« Reply #1992 on: July 25, 2018, 08:14:08 pm »
Seems to be evidence for an underground lake (like 1.5km underground) on Mars. If the evidence from radar holds up, then it's possible it's not the only one. Remarkable to be at this point in exploring Mars, huge achievement by those who've contributed to the missions and the analysis. Fingers crossed.

National Geographic has a good summary of the story, with all the appropriate caveats.
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Re: Space exploration thread
« Reply #1993 on: July 27, 2018, 10:55:40 pm »
Best moon ever since God was born and it's fucking cloudy here in Liverpool. fml.

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Re: Space exploration thread
« Reply #1994 on: July 27, 2018, 11:03:07 pm »
Best moon ever since God was born and it's fucking cloudy here in Liverpool. fml.

There is supposed to be another one in January, let's hope the cloud has disappeared by then. It's so frustrating some wonderful images in the Guardian of it. 
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Re: Space exploration thread
« Reply #1995 on: July 27, 2018, 11:27:48 pm »
Best moon ever since God was born and it's fucking cloudy here in Liverpool. fml.

It's so annoying.

We've had beautiful clear skies every night for weeks on end down here in Devon and then today and tonight, cloudy.

I've been popping out at intervals all evening in vain hope and the Moon has finally just started to appear through breaks in the cloud but of course, it's now past eclipse time....





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Offline red1977

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Re: Space exploration thread
« Reply #1996 on: July 31, 2018, 10:29:13 pm »
Mars at its closest to Earth today since 2003: https://www.space.com/41329-mars-closest-to-earth-2018.html


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Re: Space exploration thread
« Reply #1997 on: August 1, 2018, 04:16:27 am »
Mars at its closest to Earth today since 2003: https://www.space.com/41329-mars-closest-to-earth-2018.html


Fuck, did I miss the boat?

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Re: Space exploration thread
« Reply #1998 on: August 1, 2018, 07:45:10 pm »
JAXA (the Japanese space agency) is currently in the middle of landing something on an asteroid again to try and get a sample to bring back to Earth. Hayabusa2 has a twitter feed in English which is pretty cool as it posts the pics as they come in.

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Re: Space exploration thread
« Reply #1999 on: August 31, 2018, 03:17:35 pm »
In other news, New Horizons has imaged it's next target, now being called Ultima Thule, still more than four months away from its Janary 1 2019 encounter.

Quote


Ultima in View

The figure on the left is a composite image produced by adding 48 different exposures from the News Horizons Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI), each with an exposure time of 29.967 seconds, taken on Aug. 16, 2018. The predicted position of the Kuiper Belt object nicknamed Ultima Thule is at the center of the yellow box, and is indicated by the yellow crosshairs, just above and left of a nearby star that is approximately 17 times brighter than Ultima.

At right is a magnified view of the region in the yellow box, after subtraction of a background star field "template" taken by LORRI in September 2017 before it could detect the object itself. Ultima is clearly detected in this star-subtracted image and is very close to where scientists predicted, indicating to the team that New Horizons is being targeted in the right direction. The many artifacts in the star-subtracted image are caused either by small mis-registrations between the new LORRI images and the template, or by intrinsic brightness variations of the stars. At the time of these observations, Ultima Thule was 107 million miles (172 million kilometers) from the New Horizons spacecraft and 4 billion miles (6.5 billion kilometers) from the Sun.

Image credits: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute

This is a very significant and positive development.  I don't think the team was expecting to image UT effectively until it was bare weeks away; but now not only is it where they were expecting it to be - so they've nailed the orbit spot on - but they can also start checking for potential hazards and refining the fly by details several months in advance of the actual encounter.
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